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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28640058">The Suit</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Quippy_Username'>Quippy_Username (orphan_account)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Better Call Saul (TV), Breaking Bad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blue Christmeth 2020, Comedy, Ficlet, Gen, Not Canon Compliant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:28:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,208</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28640058</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Quippy_Username</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>My Blue Christmeth gift for NessaSan, @NessaSan I hope you like it! Prompt was a platonic Howard and Lalo meet cute because they haven’t crossed paths in canon yet, or as I like to call it, Lalo lightly bullying Howard in an unspecified location for an also unspecified yet exceedingly agonizing amount of time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Blue Christmeth 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Suit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/NessaSan/gifts">NessaSan</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Please free to comment below on where you think Lalo and Howard might be having this conversation and do try to make it as implausible as possible :) Also my Spanish leaves a lot to be desired, I did some research and tried my best, but if something still sounds off you can let me know in the comments and I’ll go back in and fix it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Lalo liked talking to strangers, and liked that about himself. His charisma was an asset, not least because it distinguished him from the rest of his family, making him invaluable rather than just another cog in the machine. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>More specifically, Lalo liked talking to strangers who did not want to be talking to him. It was funny, and closed off people often proved more interesting than their mouthier counterparts once you scratched the surface a bit. Less risk involved, too, striking up a conversation with someone who wouldn’t return his inquiries, so determined were they to discourage any. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Also, it was funny.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Suit hardly looked like a man of unplumbed hidden depths, your standard trust-fund gringo with daddy issues fare, but that sort were almost always a tragicomic cocktail of easily pissed off and too polite to tell him to piss off. Burnt out from only ever interacting with carbon copies of themselves, other square jawed sycophants they would bitch about to their wives when they got home without a shred of self-awareness. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Suit had finally pulled his head out of his own ass long enough to realize he was under scrutiny, and was doing a piss poor job of feigning obliviousness. He did not fidget, probably one of the only things he and Lalo had in common was having such habits strong-armed out of them by a nitpicking patriarch, but his eyes kept darting back and forth between Lalo and nothing in particular, and an ugly grimace had taken up residence on his infomercial face. Lalo did not do him the courtesy of redirecting his gaze. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is there something I can help you wi-” the Suit started, which was, funnily enough, right when Lalo himself finally got around to speaking. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you related to the Sturtevants, by any chance?” He interrupted, furrowing his brow in pretend contemplation. He kept his face otherwise devoid of any discernible expression, leaving the implications of being associated with these Sturdevants up to whatever little imagination the Suit did or did not possess. The Suit responded with a tight smile Lalo suspected was reserved for anyone who operated outside his immediate sphere of influence; it wasn’t as charming as it might have been on such a news anchor face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, I’m afraid you’re mistaking me for someone else.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lalo made his face look skeptical, and watched the gringo deflate as he braced himself for an odds-on onslaught of small talk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s so weird. I could have sworn I’ve seen you somewhere before.” As he said it he realized it was true, the Suit did look somewhat familiar. Was he actually a news anchor? Or… No, he would have remembered meeting someone in his line of work who looked like they frequented backyard barbecues. Man, but this guy’s face was douchey. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That douchey face was made somehow even douchier by the Suit’s surprisingly animated response to his observation. Lalo almost frowned. He hadn’t meant to make this conversation tenable to the other party. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m a lawyer,” the Suit said smugly, and actually straightened his tie. Lalo snapped his fingers in recognition. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s right! You’re the guy from those billboards- HMM, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“HHM,” the Suit corrected him, his enthusiasm seemingly dampened by having to do so. “Hamlin Hamlin McGill.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>McGill?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“McGill?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The jaw that took up most of the Suit’s face gave an almost imperceptible twitch. “Yes. I’m Hamlin. The second Hamlin, that is. My father-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know what’s funny?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Suit- Hamlin- looked like he did, in fact, know what was funny, but found the joke to be in poor taste. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“McGill is my lawyer’s name, but I don’t think he’s employed at your firm. Isn’t that funny?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes.” Hamlin said stiffly. That tic from before had come back in full force, his jaw clicking in and out like a forehead vein. Lalo knew he had to be mindful in his approach, but part of him wished sorely that this was a circumstance that called for less finesse and more force. It was unlikely that whatever Hamlin was withholding concerned him directly, but he’d have to be stupid to let this opportunity slide, especially when the lawyer had made it so glaringly obvious that the subject of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman was a sore one. Was it nothing more than a personal grudge, a more polished practitioner’s resentment of McGill’s car salesman approach to the profession, competitiveness? Or was it an indicator of untrustworthiness, that the lawyer’s own colleagues thought so little of him as to try and dissuade strangers from entering his name into polite conversation? Did they know what kind of clients he took on? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“His name is Jimmy, but he’s going by Saul Goodman, last I heard. You know him?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not all lawyers know each other,” They both laughed like drunks, that ever so slightly off-kilter laugh that opened for a fight. “But yes, we’re acquainted. Not well, mind you, but-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, the other McGill? Is that just a coincidence, or..?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hamlin’s face blanched, somehow. The look on his face was much too private to be on public display, and anybody with a semblance of decency would have looked away as though they had been flashed. Lalo did not. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“His brother was my partner at HHM.” Hamlin put the look away with a sad little smile, and Lalo knew that pushing that particular subject any further would only result in the conversation being brought to an untimely end. He made a vaguely conciliatory noise, and the lawyer nodded his acceptance of it. Lalo wondered if Hamlin could sense the sheer lack of conviction behind his show of sympathy. He wasn’t the least bit sorry, and why should he be? He hadn’t known the guy, and if McGill’s brother had been anything like him, the world was probably better off without. He wondered what the lawyer’s face would look like if he were to suddenly broach the subject of his dead brother during business hours, to sully the name of a late relative just a little by bringing it into the sacrilegious space that was their walk of life. Probably priceless. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you know his wife, too?” He’d been far more impressed by Kim Wexler both times he had met her than with her limp-dicked hustler of a husband. Too bad </span>
  <em>
    <span>she’d</span>
  </em>
  <span> probably never work for him; he hadn’t exactly made a stellar impression on her either time. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hamlin’s eyebrows shot up, and Lalo realized to his delight that he had started something. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He doesn’t- he isn’t married. I think he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>been</span>
  </em>
  <span> married, but that would have been quite awhile ago-”</span>
</p>
<p><span>“Really? That’s strange, I could’ve sworn that the blonde mamí</span> <span>he’s living with told me she was his wife.” </span></p>
<p>
  <span>The lawyer’s face was a clusterfuck of conflicting emotions, namely, abject confusion, dawning horror and something that looked like resignation. His sigh was almost a hiss. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have you ever tried to help someone, but no matter how… </span>
  <em>
    <span>apparent </span>
  </em>
  <span>it became that they should take your advice, they just… refused to help themselves? Almost as though they were </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell-bent </span>
  </em>
  <span>on self destruction?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked at the other man as though whatever answer Lalo gave would make all the difference. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” Lalo replied cheerfully, and offered him a stick of gum. </span>
</p>
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